FURY has erupted over the revelation that the EU's outgoing president Herman Van Rompuy will pocket nearly £600,000 of taxpayers' money for doing nothing.

The Belgian eurocrat is entitled to the money after finishing his term as president

The Belgian eurocrat is entitled to the money as a transitional allowance over the next three years after finishing his term as European Council president.

In a sign that the juggernaut of EU excess shows no signs of slowing, Mr Van Rompuy will be paid £133,723 a year - 55 per cent of his basic salary - until December 2017, on top of his annual Brussels pension of £52,000.

Hard-pressed Brits deserve a better deal from Brussels

John O'Connell, Director of the Taxpayers

He will also receive a £21,000 one-off payment, taking his earnings to £578,000 over the next three years.

The extraordinary golden goodbye, which is to ease him back into life outside the world of Brussels officialdom, immediately triggered an angry backlash.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage, who once described Mr Van Rompuy as a "damp rag", blasted the payments.

"Van Rompuy's term in office has seen millions driven into poverty and unemployment by the eurozone crisis but he himself has hit the jackpot," he said.

"The EU is a racket which looks after its own."

Under EU rules, Mr Van Rompuy does not have to do any work for his 'transitional allowance', which will be eligible for reduced-rate EU community tax, rather than the Belgian income tax rate.

GETTY

Council President Donald Tusk receives a ceremonial bell from outgoing President Herman Van Rompuy

GETTY

Outgoing European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, right, holds a good luck charm

The Belgian has been replaced by Donald Tusk, who is being offered a package of pay and perks which total more than five times what he was earning as Polish Prime Minister.

Labour peer Baroness Ashton, who finished her job as the European Commission's High Representative of Foreign Affairs in October, is receiving the same £133,723 allowance - although, at 58, she is not entitled to a pension.

Mr Van Rompuy's golden goodbye is one of several transitional allowances being paid out to numerous European Commissioners who are standing down from the last Brussels executive - with the bill totalling £30 million.

John O'Connell, Director of the Taxpayers said today: "This is an extraordinary figure. Taxpayers will be furious that Mr Van Rompuy, who has not exactly been the biggest cheerleader for much-needed reform in Europe, is walking off with such a significant golden goodbye.

"Hard-pressed Brits deserve a better deal from Brussels, and that includes a crackdown on the ludicrous pensions and pay-offs handed out to former officials."

Mr Van Rompuy, a former Belgian prime minister, plans to steer clear of frontline politics in his retirement.

He has revealed he will be concentrating on his hobby of writing Haiku poetry - although he will give occasional lectures at the College of Europe in Bruges, which is a training school for EU officials.

Mr Van Rompuy has been no stranger to enjoying the perks of life as a top Brussels bureaucrat since taking on the post at the end of 2009.

On one occasion four years ago, he faced criticism after using his official motorcade - made up of five limousines - to ferry himself and nine members of his family on 325-mile round trip from Brussels to Paris Charles De Gaulle Airport for a private holiday in the Caribbean.

In June, Mr Van Rompuy clashed with British Prime Minister David Cameron and was 'shown the door' at Downing Street after talks about the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as President of the European Commission.

When Mr van Rompuy refused to guarantee a vote of all 28 EU leaders over whether Mr Juncker should be given the job, Mr Cameron declared there was 'no point in continuing this meeting'.

The European Union defended Mr Van Rompuy's transitional allowance as "the price for the total independence" of senior European Union officials - adding that recipients of 'transitional allowances' must also "ask permission for any job they would like to do for 18 months after leaving".